Pico Powder Day - December 19 2013

I was at Killington for the PSIA Master's Academy this past week.  I used to be a regular at the Long Trail Inn and had dinner there.  Murray McGrath the owner was telling me how great the skiing was at Pico.  Murray is a big earn your turns kind of guy and Pico closes mid-week so he has it all to himself.  His description of the Pico Powder had me dying to get back there.  On Thursday I was checking on the Killington trail report on my iPad just before heading up to Killington to join my clinic group when I saw that Pico was going to reopen that morning after all the snow over the past week.  I made a split second decision play hooky for the morning and then texted the group leader that I would join them at lunch time and headed over to Pico.

I pulled into the parking lot and there were maybe 20 car and almost nobody in the lodge.  Boarded the Golden Express Quad right at opening and on to the Summit Express Chair.  The powder was amazing.  They had KA, Sunset 71 and Summit Glades open on Natural snow and 49er blown and groomed.  The coverage was good and because Pico is not that rocky it all was very skiable.  The powder was above boot top and sweet and creamy.  Pico’s old school narrow trails are great for catching and holding snow.  I particularly liked KA where in spots the snow was knee deep.  KA is named after the first ski school director of Pico, Karl Acker legend has it he is buried up in the woods off the side of the trail.  It’s a classic narrow and winding New England Black run with rolls and drop offs.  It was super sweet and always was my favorite at Pico from the time I taught there.



View down Upper KA with the Chititden Resv in  the background


Half way down the upper mountain lowers to a steep blue pitch and it was smooth and easy powder high speed cruising that made me smile all the way to the lift to repeat over and over.  Regrettably the morning ended way too fast and had to head back up to Killington to rejoin my group.  I got in about 15k vert in the morning and rejoined my group with a perma-grin.

Pico will be closed all winter early in the week and reopening Thursday so if you are heading to Killington for a long weekend I’d highly recommend skiing Pico on Thursday particularly if it snowed at all during the week.  Pico’s two high speed lifts serve up a boat load of uncrowded old school skiing.



View from top of Pico looking at Killington

Even with all of the development near K it's a very attractive area of state without a lot of boring parts.

I did some climbing at the cliffs across from Pico this summer, it was a fun place to take it all in.

Glad you got some snow!

Have had some GREAT days at Pico, going to get there this season- Nice report, more PICS!